Hello all, per a previous discussion I thought I'd try and foster some targeted project work here in the sketching forum. The target I'd like to see sketched this month (well, let's say through April) would be the Leo Triplet of Galaxies: M65, M66 and NGC 3628.

Any medium or techniques go (we may ask for more specifics in a later month depending on involvement and enthusiasm for us newbs to learn new things!).

Unfortunately I can't start us off on this adventure with an example as I've been sick, have had terrible weather, dealing with too much stuff at work, and the obligatory being sick of dealing with work and the weather...

Done with graphite on white paper. They were kind of low in the sky when I sketched this, but transparency was very good; I saw spiral structure in M51 and M81 later that night. I probably should have waited until they were higher up to sketch them...

I think they look like a sad face , not a smiley face. I think there is a similar formation in the Virgo cluster somewhere. They're definitely some funny looking galaxies, I started laughing the first time I managed to see NGC 3628.

I really like your sketch and capture of all three galaxies. I'll try but its not looking good for over the next 7 days weather wise. My last observation of the triplet was January 30, 2009. I'll post when I can grab a good look at them.

I do intend to take part in this if my weather ever breaks. Like Eric I can't fit all three in a single field with my primary instrument, but I was considering doing a composite sketch: I could start with the field stars using my 4" refractor, and then fill in the galaxy details with the 16" Mak. I'm a bit unsure of this approach as it kind of goes against my normal "this is what I see in the eyepiece" mantra, but it'd be an intersting experiment (which certainly seems in tune with this thread).

Anyway, just to keep things rolling here's the NGC member from last year with my old scope:

Our sky conditions (not too bad) and some haze/sky glow and my older eyes meant that the NGC object was just barely noticeable with averted vision. The scene took up less than 1/2 the field of view of the 22mm Panoptic. The sketch developed from astro video took up all of the screen. As the NGC object was slipping off one side of the screen (after 30 minutes) then the other two came in view since my LXD75 tripod is not perfect. However, the astro-video study was well worth the wait since the details of the objects were a real pleasure to study.

Fastastic detail you're getting with that Mallincam! I've got a buddy over in England who does his sketching with a 14" Newt and a Watec video camera, and he's getting really impressive results as well. Me thinks there might have to be one of those doohickies in my future....

Wow, great sketches everyone. I attempted to capture these three last night but ran into a host of problems, the major one being that I didn't realize just how faint these guys are! I guess I got spoiled last year looking through larger instruments at darker skies!

My setup should frame the three pretty well. My C9.25 with 31mm Nagler should show all three, but I could only barely discern M65 and M66, NGC36286 was nowhere to be seen. That's when I started encountering my problems: dew. On EP's and on my corrector plate (I had adjusted collimation and that wrecked me for the evening).

I used my 80ED with 9mm Nagler which gave me approximately the same FOV (a little wider, but pretty close). M65 and M66 were faint hazy "stars" with averted vision. I'm guessing my transparency and the light pollution helped washed them out too much.

I am planning on going to a dark site on Saturday to do the Messier Marathon, if there's a reasonable break I'll try to sketch them this weekend.

I'm happy to see so many folks participating! Hopefully folks are finding this a fun exercise? I am, even with the lack of production.

The plan is to create a composite "at-the-desk" sketch, using the existing "at-the-eyepiece" sketches as source material. (Mark Seibold has been encouraging me to experiment with larger scale, so this might just be my opportunity.)

I didn't get a chance to do a wide-angle field star sketch through my 4" refractor, though. Since the composite will be an at-the-desk exercise, would it be "appropriate" to sketch the wide-angle field stars from a planetarium program? Or do folks think all the elements of the composite need to be done at the eyepiece, even if the composite itself isn't?

I've still a bit of research to do on that M65 core. The center condensation is the galaxy core, while the one to the right is a foreground star. But the other side is too overexposed in all the images I've looked at, so I'm not yet sure whether it's another foreground star, a clump or HII region in the galaxy, or just a trick of the eye.

Thanks Frank, I had really hoped that I could be posting the Trio by now, but with the frantic pace of running the Messier Marathon this past weekend my head just wasn't in the game (so to speak) for sketching.

Though I do have to say the views were absolutely incredible at the dark site we observed from. If you took Jeff Young's individual sketches and put them in a single FOV, there was that much detail in my 80ED! Simply amazing, and depressing at the same time. Depressing because I now have "Dark Site Envy" and know that I'm not likely to ever see that much detail from my backyard...not unless I up the aperture to something ridiculous...

Tomorrow looks to be available, though I'm concerned that my transparency is listed as below average, but I'll give it go.

I agree, great thread you have going. I just wish the skies would settle down and allow me a night to go. I worry about that the sky will clear up next week and the moon will be too bright by then to get a good view. :: the good news is I am off for the month of April through I'll be on vacation with the family for one of those weeks so I should be able to get time for some good sessions weather permitting.